Accounts of Cypress Gardens Aquamaid Brenda Mitchell
From charming guests as a Southern Belle to awing audiences as an Aquamaid at Cypress Gardens, Brenda Mitchell sat down with Haven to...
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Tara Crutchfield
Oct 1, 2022
One Hundred Feet or Bust
Champion Skier Barbara Cooper Clack Heddon “Don’t be too hard on yourself. You practice hard, you work hard, you give it all you’ve got.”...
Tara Crutchfield
Oct 1, 2022
World Water Ski Show Tournament
No sunset or lake silhouette is more fitting than that of “The Water Ski Capital of the World” to honor the 100th anniversary of the...
Tara Crutchfield
Jun 1, 2022
Van Plating
Whether underfoot as her mother played hymns and gospel piano, making a beeline towards the music anytime her rock-nroll father picked up...
Tara Crutchfield
Jun 1, 2022
Little Bus Books
In his 2000 memoir, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” Stephen King calls books a “uniquely portable magic.” It seems only fitting to...
Tara Crutchfield
May 1, 2022
Aussie Mom Pet Sitting
It’s 8 am on a weekday morning, and a puppy in Lakeland is waiting patiently by the front door. He makes a few trips padding back and...
Tara Crutchfield
May 1, 2022
Goin’ to the Dogs
At a downtown Auburndale thrift boutique, purchases benefit adoptable pups. It really is Goin’ to the Dogs! This charming thrift store on...
Tara Crutchfield
May 1, 2022
SPCA Florida to Open New Surgery Center
Lakeland-based nonprofit SPCA Florida is abuzz with construction, renovations, and new programs to better care for the cats and dogs that...
Nate Schaller
Apr 1, 2022
The Patron Saint of Justice
“The Patron Saint of Justice,” a new mural by the internationally renowned Icelandic artist Lokey Prakkarastrik, featuring Polk County’s...
Tara Crutchfield
Apr 1, 2022
Give it Some Gas, Grandma
Start your engines and glue down those dentures, Polk County. It’s time for the 2022 NAMSER Races. The Polk Elderly Alliance and Polk...
Tara Crutchfield
Apr 1, 2022
Unlikely Vandal Caught Mid-‘F’art
The time was 2:04 am on October 9, 2021. A security system picked up movement outside an arts organization in Winter Haven. An alarm rang...
Tara Crutchfield
Apr 1, 2022
Chewz Wisely
A buzzsaw drowned out the tink, tink, tink of a hammer on a nail as we walked through a busy construction site with Winter Haven...
Tara Crutchfield
Mar 1, 2022
Promo Applications
A twenty-seven-year-old Polk County native is soon to launch an app poised to revolutionize the event and promotion scene. The Promo App,...
Tara Crutchfield
Feb 1, 2022
The Lost Words of a Trying Poet
My editor sat in a bar across from a new friend a year ago. When she asked about his hobbies, he rattled off a few and added, “...and I...
Tara Crutchfield
Feb 1, 2022
Eddie ‘Smoke’ Jackson
Fourth-grade teacher and Fire Light Reggae frontman Eddie ‘Smoke’ Jackson uses music to make a positive change in his classroom and...
Tara Crutchfield
Jan 1, 2022
Gospel Village
For ten years, Lakeland nonprofit Gospel Inc. has provided resources, fostered community, and helped find purposeful employment for...
Brianna Price
Oct 1, 2021
10th Annual Polk Emerging Leaders Awards
The 10th Annual Polk Emerging Leaders Awards were held on August 19th. While the event itself was a little different this year following...
Tara Crutchfield
Oct 1, 2021
Happy Birthday, Rec Room!
You know it, you love it, you’ve probably played a game of drunk Mario Kart there – Rec Room turns one this Halloween! The product of...
Tara Crutchfield
Oct 1, 2021
Amada Anderson
History and haunts are at the center of Winter Haven Food Tours’ newest tour option, Winter Haven Beer, Spirits, and Ghosts Walking Tour....
Tara Crutchfield
Oct 1, 2021
There’s a New Burger Sheriff in Town
Today, in the culmination of three friends’ backyard barbecue epiphany five years earlier, I sat inside Adler’s new Winter Haven burger...
Tara Crutchfield
Oct 1, 2021
Goodnight Lakeland
“Goodnight, Mister Fish and Polk Museum of Art, too. Goodnight, Library. See you at storytime soon.” – Goodnight Lakeland By Ida Mundell...
Tara Crutchfield
Aug 1, 2021
Seaplane Capital of the World
“It’s magical,” said 25-year-old seaplane pilot Abbie Kellett. “You’ll see – it’s just amazing.” Some 500 feet below the yellow airframe...
Tara Crutchfield
Aug 1, 2021
Let’s Play Shuffleboard!
It’s a little humid but not too bad for a summer morning in Florida. The hum of player chatter is interrupted by the clack of one disk...
Tara Crutchfield
Jul 1, 2021
Daniel Pepin
Born in Bellingham, Massachusetts, an hour outside of Boston, into a family from the French-speaking part of Quebec, Daniel Pepin has an...
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